Groups Call for a Clean FY 2018 Budget

173 Groups Call for a Clean FY 2018 Budget

We, the undersigned organizations, write to ask you to oppose any FY 2018 appropriations bills which include ideological policy riders.

Appropriations bills have been used before to undermine essential safeguards through “policy riders” – provisions that address extraneous policy issues, and are slipped into appropriations bills to win approval as part of must-pass funding legislation. Earlier this year, hundreds of these policy provisions were proposed as a part of the omnibus process, and in the FY18 budget process some members of Congress have already started to insist on ideological riders.

Ideological riders are measures that the public opposes and would be unpopular to move as standalone legislation. The American people support policies to restrain Wall Street abuses and ensure safe and healthy food and products, to protect our air, land, water and wildlife, to ensure safe and fair workplaces, to prevent consumer rip-offs and corporate wrongdoing, to create fair rules of the road for our campaign finance system, to provide access to justice and fair housing, and to ensure continued access to vital health care services including reproductive health care.

Contentious poison pill riders are intended to advance the priorities of special interest donors and supporters and should not be included in funding bills.

President Trump has proposed a budget rigged for billionaires and big business featuring deep cuts that endanger our health and safety, our workplaces and wallets, as well as, our environment and our economy. In addition to being free from poison pill riders, any budget passed through Congress must go far beyond both this paltry Presidential proposal and the obviously inadequate sequester funding levels, to robustly fund agencies and programs to protect the public.

We urge Members of Congress to support increased spending caps while opposing flawed funding proposals that include ideological policy riders.